The Loyal Pug
by PM483
Summary: Third Pug story, it is not necessary to have read the first two ;) Post-Reichenbach. John discovers that he is not the only one who's suffering after Sherlocks "death", also Junior, the little pug seems to be sad...


**The Loyal Pug**

It had been a week since… _the fall_, he called it that, because admitting, even to himself, that Sherlock had committed suicide was too much. It would push him over the edge… bad choice of words.

John sighed and stood from the chair where he had been sitting for the last hour, just staring at the wall. Junior who had been sleeping on John's feet woke up and looked at him with big puppy eyes.

John looked back at the dog and wondered if it even understood anything of what was going on. If the pug even noticed that Sherlock was gone, forever. How would it? He couldn't explain it to it, Junior probably didn't even care. Sherlock had just yelled at it most of the time anyway.

And now the dog just followed John around the flat, or as it did most of the day, slept in front of the door. John fed it and took it for walks as he used to, but not much else. Sometimes he took it up and petted it, but only because it was an old habit.

Junior began to bark and shake a bit.

"I've just fed you, you are not getting anymore." John mumbled and walked to the kitchen to take the dishes.

In the living room Junior kept looking at his master while its whole body was shaking slightly and he whimpered as if John had kicked him.

"_Goodbye John…" … Sherlock jumped… John ran… Sherlock no…_

John woke up covered in sweat; he sat up and tried to catch his breath. Took off his shirt and tossed it in the corner. He looked at the alarm clock luminous red numbers, _1:32 am_. 2 hours of sleep. He covered his face with his hands. _You bastard, _John thought, _how could you do this to me?_ He didn't understand it, Sherlock hadn't seemed unhappy. Maybe bored most of the time and the whole case with Moriarty had been hard on him. But Sherlock hadn't been depressed. And if Sherlock had been, wouldn't John have noticed? He should have, he had been around Sherlock almost 24-fucking-hours a day.

It scratched on the door to his bedroom. John turned his head toward the door. How long had Junior been there? John got out of bed and opened the door. The pug sat outside, shaken.

John picked it up. "Have you been out there the whole time?"

But the only respond he got was some piggy-noises, and then a yawn. John smiled a bit and sat the dog down on his bed. "You can sleep here tonight." He said and went back to bed himself.

John was lying on his side, staring at the wall. Not sure if he wanted to go back to sleep, the nightmares would just come back. They did every night. Then he felt the tiny dog leaning against his back, trying to be as close as possible to John's body.

John turned around, and the little pug crawled toward his face. John stopped it before it reached his chin, and covered it in some of the duvet. After a minute or two the pug began to snore. This didn't mean John fell asleep, but at least he didn't felt so alone. Maybe the dog didn't felt the loss of Sherlock the same way as him, but it sure felt something.

* * *

"Thank you for meeting me here." John said and wrapped his fingers around the hot cup of coffee.

"Yeah sure, no problem." Molly Hooper responded and touched her own cup with nervous fingers.

John wasn't sure why he had phoned Molly and asked her out for coffee, but it was most likely because he hoped that she could tell him how he should deal with Junior, after all she had cats herself.

"So Molly, I wanted to ask you about something…" John began and looked at her; she looked more nervous than usually. John frowned "You alright?"

Her eyes flickered from the cup to John and back again. "Yeah it's just… you know…"

John looked down, of cause he knew what Molly was talking about she missed Sherlock too. "I know you miss him too," John said and made eye contact with her, she looked even sadder now. "But it was something else I wanted to talk to you about…"

He wouldn't talk to Molly about Sherlock, even though she had known him for a long time too, even longer than John in fact, and she had always helped him, even when he had been mean to her, but John just couldn't share his pain with her. But the fact that they not were going to talk about Sherlock seemed to calm her a bit.

"I actually wanted to talk to you about our… _my_ dog, Junior." John said. It would take a while before he would get used to saying things like that.

"What about him?" Molly asked and looked at him with eyes full of sympathy.

John stared down into his coffee; he couldn't bear to look at her, or anybody else who had been giving him that look in the last week. "Well… I'm a bit worried, he is acting weird and most of the day is he just lying in front of the door. Do you think he knows that Sherlock isn't coming back?"

John looked at her and saw that she was a bit confused.

"Well," she began. "I don't think Junior knows. But I think that he knows there something wrong since Sherlock hasn't been home…" the rest of the sentence died in a whisper.

John looked down, how was he supposed to deal with this? Junior would never be able to understand. He couldn't even understand it himself. He would give everything to go home and find Sherlock sitting in his chair playing the violin or just using the computer he had taken without John's permission.

"Have you ever heard of Hachikō?" Molly then asked and brought him back to reality.

John looked up. "No, who's that?"

"A dog in Japan. Every day it walked with its owner to the train station, and every day the dog was there waiting for him then he came back with the train. But then, one day, the man died while he was at work, but of course could no one explain it to the dog, so every day for the rest of its life Hachikō appeared when the train had due at the station. Waiting for his master to come home."

John was touched by the story about the loyal dog, but he couldn't help but wonder if that would mean that Junior would be looking at the door for the rest of his life, only waiting for Sherlock to walk in the door. John turned the cup in his hands.

"John…"

John looked at Molly again, after he just had been staring at his coffee cup for a while.

"He can feel it, that you're sad, that is why he follows you around. He's just trying to protect you, trying to make you feel better. He's is worried for you, but he don't know what to do."

John didn't answer on that. Simply because he didn't knew what to say. In his own pain and anger had he only found the dog annoying, and now he felt like a prick. Poor Junior, the first thing he would do when he come home was to pick up the little pug and give it an apology even though he knew it wouldn't understand the words, but maybe it somehow could feel it.

Since John hadn't said anything Molly continued: "I know it sounds stupid right now, but it's gonna be okay. Not soon, but eventually is it gonna get better. And Junior is gonna be just fine, because he still have you. You have to take care of him, he needs you."

John smiled a little. She was right, he would never forget Sherlock and all the things they had done together and he would never stop missing Sherlock for good, but it would hopefully be easier with time. And Junior did need him, and John knew that he somehow also needed Junior.

"Harry has offered that I can come and live with her for a while, so I think I'll accept that. I think that will be the best for both me and Junior."

She nodded. "I think you're right."

"Thank you Molly, this has really been a help."

* * *

The house was empty except from Junior who was lying on the living room floor snoring, while John and Harry had gone to the grocery. Harry had insisted on that he took with her, so he didn't just sat at home.

Junior raised his head when he heard someone at the front door, and then ran to the door. He began to bark angrily, but as soon as the little dog recognized the man he instead barked of joy and jumped up his leg.

"John, stop!" the man said. But that didn't stop the little pug. He was so used to be called all sort of things by this man, he was just happy to see his other master again.

Sherlock couldn't help but smile a little; he picked up the dog and looked at it. It tried to lick his face, so he held it a bit lower, but otherwise just stood there with it in his arms. The pug was all calm now and just looked up at him. "Hello Junior…" Sherlock said softly and looked back at the dog.

"This is stupid…" Sherlock then mumbled to himself. "All right listen Junior," he said and felt like a complete idiot because of the things he was about to say. "I… I'm going to be away for a while. Probably for years and right now do I not have any idea of when I will be back. So I need you to do me a favor, you has to keep John busy, especially here in the first couple of months, okay?" Sherlock sighed. He was asking a dog for a favor, but he felt like it helped to get it out, and Junior was, beside Molly, the only one he could say anything to before he left. "I don't care what you do, if you bark at all the spiders you see, pee on the floor or eat his clothes, just make sure he has something else to think about."

The dog just looked at him; of course it just did so, it wasn't like Sherlock had expected it to nod or something. But somehow Sherlock felt a bit better. "Remember why John bought you? So I could talk to you when he went out, you were a substitute for him, now it's time to switch. You have to replace me now…"

He sat the pug down again, and squatted down in front of it. It sat its front paws on his left knee. Sherlock patted the dog's head. He would miss that bloody dog. Miss yelling at it, feed it secretly when John didn't saw it and the few times he had taken it for walks. He had considered if he should take it with him, just so he didn't had to be completely alone. But he couldn't do that to John, he couldn't cause John anymore pain.

"Goodbye Junior." Sherlock said and stood. "Take care of John."

Then Sherlock left.

Inside Junior looked at the door for a couple of seconds, and then got bored. John hadn't unpacked Junior's teddy bear yet, but that wasn't a problem for the little pug, because he found a nice shoe of John's.


End file.
